Chapter 106: A-Rank Monsters
After harvesting the Vampire Bats’ wings and mana cores, Leo continued to walk towards the other side of the cavern.
“By the way, I intend on going as deep as this cave goes. I want to see what’s at the end of it.” Leo suddenly said.
Nina frowned and quickly said, “That sounds incredibly risky, even more risky than taking on the goblin’s nest with just two people, especially when we don’t even know what’s there. What if we encounter A-Rank monsters? Or worse— S-Rank monsters.”
“We should be able to handle A-Rank monsters, right? I mean, look at how effortlessly we have been dealing with B-Rank monsters.” Leo said.
“You cannot compare B-Rank monsters to A-Rank monsters, Leo. The disparity between their prowess is akin to the disparity between your magic talents and mine. Monsters between F-Rank and B-Rank are considered ‘ordinary’ monsters while A-Rank monsters are considered ‘elite’ monsters.”
“For example, while it may take 2-4 ordinary B-Rank Adventurers to deal with a single B-Rank monster, it could take at least 20 ordinary A-Rank Adventurers to deal with an single A-Rank monster. Most B-Rank and below monsters can only use one or two magic spells and are limited to Tier 3 and below magic spells, but A-Rank monsters can use up to 5 different magic spells with Tier 6 magic being their limit.”
“I see… By the way, what do people consider an ‘ordinary’ Adventurer? Surely, if someone can reach A-Rank as an Adventurer, they can’t be ordinary.”
“No matter what rank you are, there will always be some that will stand out more than the others. For example, there are A-Rank Adventurers that have high talents and the potential to become S-Rank, and then there are A-Rank Adventurers that barely made it to that rank and are destined to remain as A-Rank forever. The latter are what most call ‘ordinary’ Adventurers while the former are considered the top Adventurers of their respective rank. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.” He nodded.
“Anyways, I think it’s too dangerous to go any deeper than this, but if you have already decided to get to the bottom of this cave, I will follow you.”
“Thank you. I won’t forget this.” Leo said.
Now that they had decided to see the end of this cave, they no longer lingered around the cavern and continued walking deeper.
“By the way, how many points would an A-Rank monster give? 10,000 points? 20,000 points?” Leo suddenly asked.
“Over 100,000 points. It depends on the monster since the prowess of A-Rank monsters vary greatly from each other. For example, some A-Rank monsters could have 10,000 magic power while others can have 50,000 magic power.”
“I see…”
“What do you think, Lilith? Are we strong enough to fight A-Rank monsters?” Leo decided to ask for her opinion next.
“If you use magic, yes, but even then, you’ll only be able to handle the weaker ones at A-Rank. Don’t underestimate their prowess. Just like Nina said, they’re on a whole other level compared to the monsters you have been fighting recently.”
Sometime later, they encountered a large monster that looked like a lizard, but it was wearing an armor made of rocks that covered its whole body.
“A Stone Lizard, huh?”
Once he identified the monster, Leo approached it while keeping his eyes on its movements.
When the Stone Lizard suddenly tilted its head back, Leo immediately jumped to the side.
Phew!
A projectile the size of a human’s head flew out of the Stone Lizard’s mouth the moment Leo moved, traveling as fast as a bullet and creating a hole on the ground where it struck.
After dodging the attack, Leo continued running at the Stone Lizard.
Once he was close enough, he imbued his sword with his mana before striking the Stone Lizard.
The sword penetrated through its stone armor and went straight into its body without any resistance.
The Stone Lizard released a painful cry, but Leo wasn’t done, as he continued to strike its body until it stopped moving.
‘His sword can penetrate even a Stone Lizard’s stone armor like it’s nothing…’ Nina swallowed nervously as she stared at the Stone Lizard’s corpse that was riddled with sword marks.
Over the next three hours, they would encounter more Stone Lizards and Vampire Bats.
As for the Crystal Golems, they have yet to encounter a single one.
Several more hours later, they reached the end of the cavern, and it was back to being a narrow path.
“We didn’t encounter a single Crystal Golem in the end.” Leo said as they approached the tunnel.
“Why do you sound disappointed?” Nina raised her eyebrows in a questioning manner.
“I guess I wanted to fight it.” He shrugged.
Lilith chuckled at his words and said, “It wasn’t long ago when you would rather avoid fighting monsters. Now you’re actively searching for them.”
“I guess I have grown accustomed to fighting monsters and this world in general a little.” He smiled.
Once they entered the tunnel, Leo and Nina immediately noticed something different about the path.
“The ground is slanted… Looks like we’re going down.” Nina said.
As they went deeper into the cave, the ground became more slanted.
After walking for about ten minutes without encountering a single monster, they came to a sudden dead end— at least that’s what it looked like from a distance.
“Wait… Is that a dead end?” Leo focused his eyes to get a clearer look, and sure enough, he could see a wall at the end of the path.
“I’ll go take a look.” Lilith said as she flew ahead.
Once she reached the end, she turned to look at Leo and shouted, “It’s not a dead end! There’s a sharp turn over here, so it only looks like one!”
“Actually, I think I see something…” Leo said to Nina after hearing Lilith’s words.
“To think there would be such a sharp turn here… I’m surprised that you’d managed to see it from back there.” Nina mumbled in a surprised voice at the turn.
“I guess I have pretty good eyesight…” Leo said with a stiff smile on his face.
“Anyways, let’s continue.”
Nina nodded, and they continued traveling down this weird tunnel.